[68skylark]

I'm sure the guard and reserves are upset at how much they are being used when they signed up thinking they would be used less than people in the army, etc.

Well, let's hold on a minute. I'm a guardsman. And I know quite a few others. The ones I know (including myself) are eager to get into this fight. Anyone who doesn't want to get to the battle probably shouldn't be in the armed forces. So I'm not sure what basis you have for saying "I'm sure the guard and reserves are upset at how much they are being used." You feel guardsmen are shirkers?

[GraniteStateConservative]

I'm talking about those who are already in the field being asked to do more service than they would be expected to do. Longer terms, shorter breaks. That's not shirking a responsibility. They signed up with the understanding that their committment was lesser than people in the army, for example. They are being used in much the same way as the army and they and their families don't understand why they were mislead. The reason for it is that we have drawn down our active military and for political reasons-- the headcount number is always an easy stat in news stories. I applaud your service and am not suggesting any trait that would be unadmirable.

[geedee]

You feel guardsmen are shirkers?

I don't. You and the others like you are the MAIN reason we're the greatest country the world has ever known.

The only ones who doubt you are the liberal media lapdogs who couldn't recognize the business-end of an M-16 . . . yet it is precisely these same weapons and the brave warriors who use them that afford the journalistic whiners the freedoms they so carelessly use to inflame our enemies. We're at war. I call them and the Ted Kennedy-clones traitors.

But folks like you, 68skylark, are our secret weapons. As a Vietnam-era veteran, I salute you, sir.